Hello from new UK member

[Gill]

Hi everyone I'm Gill and was browsing for a gardening forum and found this one which seemed very friendly and just what I was looking fore....so here I am!

I'm Gill, married to Neil and owned by Lily Cat. I've been a lifelong gardener since I was barely knee-high to my dad (I'm 48 now) and used to follow him around and 'help' him. He gave me my own little sunny patch in the back garden in which I grew hardy annuals like Nigella, Nasturtiums, Candytuft and Virginia Stock. Even now they are still must-haves in my garden
I currently live in a first-floor flat so don't have a garden as such but since February 2015 we have rented a 90ft x 35ft (approximately - I must measure it properly!) plot of land from our local council from a site just five minutes walk from where we live. It was previously rented for over 15 years by a guy who grew exhibition leeks and vegetables so I was incredibly lucky to inherit a shed, greenhouse and 30ft polytunnel and I had so much fun in 2015 growing my very first tomatoes, lettuce, beetroot etc. This year I'm also growing beans, melons, pumpkins and squashes but, dare I admit it, this will be my last year of it being predominantly vegetables. My first love has always been flowers and so I am already preparing to convert the plot into a garden where Neil and I can relax with seating areas, flower beds and a pond. I'm really excited about this and have a notebook which is rapidly filling up with ideas and notes for sowing biennial seeds in the coming weeks so they will flower next year!

Anyway, off to browse the site and 'meet' you all....

Gill xxx

 

[Fernsdaddy]

Welcome to the forum, I'm sure you will fine lots of help with your gardens. We love pictures of gardens too

 

[Beverly]

A warm welcome to you Gill. Your plot sounds like it is full of so many possibilities. I will look forward to seeing what you do with it, and having it so close to where you live is a real bonus. It's funny, because all the gardening forums say they are "friendly", but this is the first one i have found where that is actually true. There is such a nice feeling of inclusiveness here and i am sure you will enjoy it. One of the best things is that you can share your ideas by just tossing one out there and receiving such a variety of responses. Glad to have you here.

 

[Beth_B]

Welcome @Gill! I agree with Beverly, this is a really friendly and helpful forum and I love that there are members from every corner of the world.

Your plot sounds lovely and brimming with possibilities.

 

[Gill]

Popped up to the allotment last night as I hadn't had a chance to do so for a couple of days and was Very Annoyed to see my poor beans had been attacked by the pigeons Completely stripped back to ragged stumps!!!!! I said a few rather unladylike words I can tell you It's been a funny sort of week weather-wise with hot days interspersed with cloudbursts of heavy rain and my squashes have been attacked by slugs So last night, as I looked over the disaster zone that is supposed to be a neat and tidy productive allotment, I decided to put next year's plan into action now As I said earlier vegetables don't really float my boat so rather than spend the next few months cursing and weeding and trying to keep control I've decided to rip it all up and start again I've got DOZENS of young perennials in pots which I'd planned to put in my flower beds so once I've marked the beds out I'll get these into the ground. I was watching Gardeners World last night once I got back home and I started making notes on flowers and doodled a design which incorporates my pond too.

Today's job is to weed the area Neil is going to build his shed on and put some weed membrane down to keep it clear for when he starts building in the coming weeks. Then I can get stuck in to my flower bed, pond and flower meadow area I'll have to start a separate thread about my new project.

 

[Becky]

Welcome to the forum!

I love Alnwick, Barter Books is my favourite bookshop ever